Kurt Vonnegut Biography

Kurt Vonnegut is acknowledged as a major voice in American literature and
applauded for his subtle criticisms and sharp portrayal of modern society.

Early life

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born on November 11, 1922, in Indianapolis,
Indiana, the son of a successful architect, Kurt Sr., and his wife,
Edith Sophia. Vonnegut was raised along with his sister, Alice, and
brother Bernard (whom he spoke of frequently in his works).
Fourth-generation Germans, the children were never exposed to their
heritage because of the anti-German attitudes that had spread throughout
the United States after World War I (1914–18; a war in which many
European countries, some Middle Eastern nations, Russia, and the United
States fought against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey). Because of
the Great Depression (the severe economic downturn in the 1930s), the
Vonneguts lost most of their wealth and the household was never the
same. Vonnegut's father fell into severe depression and his
mother died after overdosing on sleeping pills the night before
Mother's Day. This attainment and loss of the "American
Dream" would become the theme of many of Vonnegut's
writings.

After attending Cornell University, where he majored in chemistry and
biology,
he enlisted in the United States Army, serving in the World War II
(1939–45; a war fought between the Axis powers: Germany, Italy,
and Japan—and the Allies: England, France, the Soviet Union, and
the United States). This would set the stage for another crucial element
for his writings when he was taken prisoner by the German army.
Following the war, Vonnegut studied anthropology at the University of
Chicago and later moved to Schenectady, New York, to work as a publicist
for the General Electric Corporation. During this period, he also began
submitting short stories to various journals, and in 1951, he resigned
his position at General Electric to devote his time solely to writing.

The novels

Vonnegut published several novels throughout the 1950s and 1960s,
beginning with
Player Piano
in 1952.
Player Piano
depicts a fictional city called Ilium in which the people have given
control of their lives to a computer humorously named EPICAC, after a
substance that causes vomiting.
The Sirens of Titan
(1959) takes place on several different planets, including a thoroughly
militarized Mars, where the inhabitants are electronically controlled.
The fantastic settings of these works serve primarily as a metaphor
(comparison) for modern society, which Vonnegut views as absurd to the
point of being surreal (irrational; dreamlike), and as a backdrop for
Vonnegut's central focus: the hapless human beings who inhabit
these bizarre worlds and struggle with both their environments and
themselves.

Vonnegut once again focuses on the role of technology in human society
in
Cat's Cradle
(1963), widely considered one of his best

Kurt Vonnegut.
Reproduced by permission of

AP/Wide World Photos

.

works. The novel recounts the discovery of a form of ice, called
ice-nine,
which is solid at a much lower temperature than normal ice and is
capable of solidifying all water on Earth.
Ice-nine
serves as a symbol of the enormous destructive potential of technology,
particularly when developed or used without regard for the welfare of
humanity.

Slaughterhouse-Five

Vonnegut's reputation was greatly enhanced in 1969 with the
publication of
Slaughterhouse-Five,
an antiwar novel that appeared during the peak of protest against
American involvement in the Vietnam War (1955–75; when American
forces aided South Vietnam in their fight against North Vietnam).

Vonnegut described
Slaughterhouse-Five
as a novel he was compelled to write, since it is based on one of the
most extraordinary and significant events of his life. During World War
II when he was a prisoner of the German Army, Vonnegut witnessed the
Allied bombing of Dresden, Germany, which destroyed the city and killed
more than one hundred thirty-five thousand people. One of the few to
survive, Vonnegut was ordered by his captors to aid in the grisly task
of digging bodies from the rubble and destroying them in huge bonfires.
Because the city of Dresden had little military value, its destruction
went nearly unnoticed in the press.
Slaughterhouse-Five
is Vonnegut's attempt to both document and criticize this event.

Like Vonnegut, the main character of
Slaughterhouse-Five,
named Billy Pilgrim, was present at the bombing of Dresden and has been
deeply affected by the experience. His feelings develop into spiritual
uncertainty that results in a nervous breakdown. In addition, he suffers
from a peculiar condition, of being "unstuck in time,"
meaning that he randomly experiences events from his past, present, and
future. The novel is therefore a complex, nonchronological (in no order
of time) narrative in which images of suffering and loss prevail.

Breakfast of Champions

After the publication of
Slaughterhouse-Five,
Vonnegut entered a period of depression during which he vowed, at one
point, never to write another novel. He concentrated, instead, on
lecturing, teaching, and finishing a play,
Happy Birthday, Wanda June,
that he had begun several years earlier. The play, which ran
Off-Broadway from October 1970 to March 1971, received mixed reviews.
There were several factors which could be interpreted as the cause of
Vonnegut's period of depression, including, as he admitted, the
approach of his fiftieth birthday and the fact that his children had
begun to leave home. Many critics believe that, having at last come to
terms with Dresden, he lost the major inspiration for much of his work;
others feel that
Slaughterhouse-Five
may have been the single great novel that Vonnegut was capable of
writing. Whatever the cause,
Breakfast of Champions
marked the end of his depression and a return to the novel.

In
Breakfast of Champions,
as in most of Vonnegut's work, there are very clear
autobiographical tendencies. In this novel however, the author seems to
be even more wrapped up in his characters than usual. He appears as
Philboyd Sludge, the writer of the book, which stars Dwayne Hoover, a
Pontiac dealer (Vonnegut once ran a Saab dealership) who goes berserk
after reading a novel by Kilgore Trout, who also represents Vonnegut.
Toward the end of the book, Vonnegut arranges a meeting between himself
and Trout, whom Robert Merrill calls his "most famous
creation," in which he casts the character loose forever; by this
time the previously unsuccessful Trout has become rich and famous and is
finally able to stand on his own.

Later work

Breakfast of Champions
and
Slapstick, or Lonesome No More
(1976) both examine the widespread feelings of despair and loneliness
that result from the loss of traditional culture in the United States;
Jailbird
(1979) recounts the story of a fictitious participant in the Watergate
scandal of the Richard Nixon (1913–1994) administration, a
scandal which ultimately led to the resignation of the president;
Galapagos
(1985) predicts the consequences of environmental pollution; and
Hocus-Pocus; or, What's the Hurry, Son?
(1990) deals with the implications and aftermath of the war in Vietnam.

In the 1990s, he also published
Fates Worse Than Death
(1991) and
Timequake
(1997). Before its release Vonnegut noted that
Timequake
would be his last novel. Although many of these works are highly
regarded, critics frequently argue that in his later works Vonnegut
tends to reiterate themes presented more compellingly in earlier works.
Nevertheless, Vonnegut remains one of the most-loved American writers.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is currently teaching advanced writing classes at
Smith College, and in November of 2000, he was named the State Author of
New York.

User Contributions:

It's hard to imagine what he must have seen in WWII. Additionally, the concept this article misses elucidating fully, which may actually have been intentionally to protect son's privacy, is the complexity of attributing cause to any mental illness (acute, "momentary", or chronic, long term, ever present)... Moreover, his son apparently had a "break down" at about this same time.

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